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Cara Erdheim Kilgallen
Department of English
Sacred Heart University
5151 Park Avenue
Fairfield, CT. 06825
ErdheimC@Sacredheart.edu
Education
PhD, Fordham University, Department of English, August 2010.
Dissertation: “The Greening of American Naturalism”
Committee: Professor Leonard Cassuto (Fordham University), Clare Eby (University of
Connecticut), Glenn Hendler (Fordham University), and Jonathan Levin (Mary
Washington University).
M.A., Fordham University, Department of English. 2003.
B.A. (Cum Laude), Colby College, Departments of English and Spanish. 2001.
Current Scholarship
My teaching and advising are integral to my scholarship on American literature and culture.
Over the course of my academic career, my research and writing have focused on Romanticism,
naturalism, environmental criticism, food studies, disability discourse, and sports stories. I
believe that my work’s interest in topics like human dignity, health, and wellness aligns with my
University’s Mission and higher education today. Furthermore, I have published several peer-
reviewed pieces on literature and the environment, a topic that connects with Sacred Heart’s
principles of social justice and the greater global good.
These various interests have shaped the genesis of my future book, “Sport, Sustainability, and
America’s Evolving Literary Landscape.” This project will be one of the first scholarly
investigations into the literature of sport, which has generated very little literary criticism thus
far. Through an examination of Jack London’s boxing narratives, John Updike’s writings about
golf, John Edgar Wideman’s basketball nonfiction, Bernard Malamud’s baseball novels, and
Marianne Moore’s poetry about the national pastime, my work explores the centrality of sport to
the nation’s literary imagination. I argue that sports stories expose a strong preoccupation in
American literature and culture with physical fitness, public health, and environmental reform.

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Academic Employment
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Sacred
Heart University. Fall 2014-Present.
Lecturer, Department of English, Sacred Heart University. Fall 2010-Spring 2014. Full-time
faculty member carrying full load of teaching, service, and research obligations.
Adjunct Professor, Department of English, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Spring 2010.
Teaching Fellow, Department of English, Fordham University. Fall 2005-Spting 2009.
Research and Teaching Interests
American Realism and Naturalism; nineteenth and twentieth-century literature; African
American writing; ecocriticism; disability discourse and theory; sports literature and culture.
Honors, Awards, and Grants
Sacred Heart University Research Grant. April 2013.
University-wide competitive grant awarded to selected faculty members to research and
complete a scholarly project.
Sacred Heart University Creative Teaching Grant. April 2012.
University-wide grant awarded to selected faculty members to implement and develop a
creative course idea.
Alumni Dissertation Fellowship. Fordham University. 2009-2010.
University-wide competitive award providing full support and release from teaching for one
academic year.
Dissertation Research Grant. Fordham Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Summer 2008.
Fellowship to Dartmouth College’s Institute for the Futures of America Studies. June 2007.
One of two graduate students selected by Fordham University’s English department for full
funding to attend week-long institute.
Senior Teaching Fellowship, Fordham University. 2007-2008.
University-wide competitive award.

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Charles A. Donohue Graduate Essay Prize. Fordham English Department. June 2004.
Award for the best graduate student English essay of the year.
Publications
https://works.bepress.com/cara_erdheim/
Articles:
“Richard Wright’s Racial Hunger: from Filth and Food to Soil and Soul.” Under Review.
“Jack London & the Racial Rhetoric of Physical Fitness.” In Process.
“Disability Discourse & Difference: Rethinking Narratives of Normalcy. Under Review.
“The Greening of American Grain: Food, Famine, and Farming in Frank Norris’s The
Octopus.” In Process.
“Naturalism’s Dietary Discourse: from Fletcher’s Fasting Fads to Sinclair’s Social Reforms.”
Food, Culture, and Society. 16:4 (2013).
“Is There a Place for Ecology in An American Tragedy? Wealth, Water, and the Dreiserian
Struggle for Survival.” Studies in American Naturalism 3:1 (2008), 1-21.
Book Chapter:
Booth Tarkington. Critical Survey of American Literature. Forthcoming.
“Why Speak of American Stories as Dreams?” Critical Insights: the American Dream. Ed.
Keith Newlin. Salem UP, 2013. March 2013.
Reviews:
Prairie Visions: Writings by Hamlin Garland, Photography by Jon Morris. Ed. Keith Newlin.
Photography by Jon Morris. Forward by Kurt Meyer. De Moines, IA: Iowan Books,
2015.Studies in American Naturalism. Forthcoming.
Wolves and the Wolf Myth in American Literature. By S. K. Robisch. Studies in American
Naturalism. 2011/2012.
Material Feminisms. Eds. Stacy Alaimo and Susan Hekman. Issue for the Study of Literature
and the Environment 17:1 (2010), 205-6.

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The Genesis of the Chicago Renaissance. By Mary Hricko. Studies in American Naturalism
4:1 (2009), 92-4.
Private Fleming at Chancellorsville: The Red Badge of Courage and the Civil War. By Perry
Lentz. Studies in American Naturalism 2:1 (2007), 80-3.
At Home in the City: Urban Domesticity in American Literature and Culture, 1830-1930. By
Betsy Klimasmith. Studies in American Naturalism 1:1 & 2 (2006), 204-7.
Additional Writings:
“Food, Fitness, and Fasting: Rethinking American Naturalism in the College Classroom.” The
American Literary Naturalism Newsletter (ALN) 6:1-2 (Fall 2011), 17-21.
“Reviving, Recovering, and Redefining American Naturalism.” ALN 2:1 (2007), 1-5.
Conference Presentations
“Jack London’s Boxing Narratives: Exercises in Physical Fitness.” American Literature
Association Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. May 2015.
“Naturalism’s Dietary Discourse.” Global Gateways and Local Connections: Cities, Agriculture,
and the Future of Food Systems. NYU Steinhardt School in New York, New York. June 2012.
“Food, Fitness, and Fasting: Rethinking American Naturalism in the College Classroom.”
Popular Culture Association Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. February 2012.
“Richard Wright’s Racial Hunger: from Filth and Food to Soil and Soul.” Multiethnic Literature
Association Conference. Boca Raton, Florida. April 2011.
“Rethinking Hunger in Sinclair’s The Jungle and The Fasting Cure. Conference for the Society
of Literature Science and the Arts in Indianapolis, Indiana. October 2010.
Teaching Experience
http://www.sacredheart.edu/academics/collegeofartssciences/academicdepartments/english/
facultystaff/caraerdheimkilgallenphd/
Sacred Heart University:
Independent Study. American Voices I. Spring 2016.

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The individual instruction of a senior English major. Directs and mentors student through her
independent reading, analysis, and research of early American authors from colonial and
Puritan prose to writings of the Republic and Romantic era. Culminates in a publishable paper
on women’s writing, Native American conquest, and The Narrative of Mary Rowlandson.
Human Journey CIT II Seminar. Spring 2016.
The second of two required seminars on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. Reading-intensive,
discussion-based course for sophomores to take as part of the University’s new Core
Curriculum. Examines the Four Fundamental Questions of the CIT in connection with writers
and writings both within and in conversation with the Tradition: Dorothy Day; Father Gustavo
Gutierrez; Gerald Manley Hopkins’ poetry; Benedict’s Encyclicals; Thomas Merton’s Seven
Storey Mountain; Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail; Victor Frankl;
Sigmund Freud; Karl Marx; and Charles Darwin.
Capstone Course in Literature. Fall 2015.
Directs and oversees six papers, of 25-40 pages, and presentations by senior English majors.
Projects published in a custom-made booklet.
Human Journey CIT I Seminar. Fall 2015.
The first of two required seminars on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. Reading-intensive,
discussion-based course for sophomores to take as part of the University’s new Core
Curriculum. Examines the Four Fundamental Claims of the CIT in relation to selections from
the following writings: Plato’s Republic; Genesis; Exodus; Gospel of Matthew; St. Augustine’s
Confessions; Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Contra Gentile; Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Experiencing Literature. Fall 2015.
A new Foundational Core requirement for sophomores focused on the experience of literature.
Emphasizes close reading, literary interpretation, and textual analysis. Examines poetry,
drama, and prose of various Western and Eastern traditions from ancient to contemporary
times. Some of the following authors include: Sophocles; Virgil; Shakespeare; Coleridge;
Wordsworth; Hemingway; Williams; Borges; Chekov; Eggers; and others.
American Renaissance Revisited. Spring 2015 (ENG 323)
Advanced honors course designed for English majors and minors. Focused on antebellum
American drama, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Examines canonical authors like Dickinson,
Emerson, Fuller, Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Thoreau, and Whitman; also, interested in
reexamining this period of antebellum writing by including the long-excluded voices of Brown,
Jacobs, Wilson, and others in the African American slave narrative tradition.

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Disability Discourse. Fall 2014 (ENG 299)
Upper-level honors elective that explores the topic of disability from a multidisciplinary
perspective. Authors and themes include: Nathaniel Hawthorne on aesthetics; Charlotte
Perkins Gilman on madness and mental illness; Tennessee Williams on social anxiety; Cormac
McCarthy on environmental disorder; Temple Grandin on autism.
American Voices II. Spring 2014 (ENG 232)
Advanced course for English majors that examines American drama, poetry, and prose from
1865 to the present. Authors include: Emily Dickinson; Walt Whitman; Mark Twain; Kate
Chopin; Henry James; Edith Wharton; William Faulkner; Arthur Miller; Ernest Hemingway;
Richard Wright; Toni Morrison; Richard Rodriguez; Maxine Hong Kingston.
Disability Discourse and the New Normal. Fall 2013 (FYEN 125)
Freshman seminar that emphasizes academic writing, close reading, college-level research, and
oral communication. Course uses American fiction, nonfiction, prose, and poetry to
understand disability as both physical and cognitive. Authors and themes include: Edgar Allan
Poe on madness and mental illness; Helen Keller on blindness and deafness; Shirley Jackson
on disfigured bodies; Oliver Sacks on disability theory.
Literary Expressions of the Human Journey. Fall 2010-Present.
*Honors section taught in spring 2013.
Common Core literature course on poetry, drama, and prose across cultures and time periods.
Authors and genres include: Homer’s epic poetry; William Shakespeare’s drama; Flannery
O’Connor’s short fiction; John Patrick Shanley’s drama; Eli Wiesel’s drama; Jon Krakauer’s
nonfiction prose; Gloria Naylor’s fiction prose (novel).
American Sports Stories and Life Lessons. Fall 2011-Present (FYEN 125)
Freshman Seminar that emphasizes academic writing, close reading, college-level research,
and oral communication. Course uses American literature as a way to understand sports, and
vice versa. Authors and themes include: Billy Jean King on tennis, gender, and sexuality;
Michael Lewis on football and environment; Jack London on boxing and race; Bernard
Malamud on baseball and American romance; John Updike on basketball and class; others.
American Renaissance. Spring 2012 (ENG 323)
Advanced course designed for English majors and minors. Focused on examining authors like
Dickinson, Emerson, Fuller, Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Thoreau; also, interested in
reexamining this period of antebellum literature by including the long-excluded voices of
Brown, Jacobs, Wilson, and others in the African American slave narrative tradition.

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Academic Writing. Fall 2010-Spring2011.
Foundational core class that introduces college writing by focusing on ethics, grammar, logic,
rhetoric, and the power of persuasion.
John Jay College, CUNY:
African and Caribbean American Literature. Spring 2010.
Upper-level literature and African American studies class. Some authors include: Ralph
Ellison, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, and Richard Wright.
Fordham University:
Food, Land, and U.S. Literature. June 2010.
Interdisciplinary upper-level literature course combining environmental and cultural studies.
Some authors and themes include: Bill McKibben and ecological awareness; Jon Krakauer and
American wilderness writing; Leslie Marmon and Native American nature experiences.
Twentieth-Century African American Literature. Spring 2009.
Co-taught upper-level undergraduate course with Professor Kimberly Banks. Theme: African
American and Caribbean writing by women.
Texts and Contexts. Fall-Spring 2009.
Introduction to literary texts and historical or cultural contexts. Examines fundamental works
of poetry, drama, and prose (both fiction and nonfiction).
Close Reading and Critical Writing. Fall-Spring 2008.
Introductory literature course focused on dreams and memories in American literature. Taught
works ranging from Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” to Toni Morrison’s Beloved.
Basic Writing Skills: An Introduction to College Writing.” 2007, 2008.
Remedial course focused on fundamental skills in grammar, exposition, and research skills.
Worked with first-year undergraduates from a wide variety of educational backgrounds.
English Composition and Rhetoric. 2005-2007.
Intensive freshman writing class on grammar, logic, rhetoric, and research.
IBEC English Language School for Japanese Students:
ESL Teacher. 2008-2009.

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Worked both individually and in small groups with Japanese students learning English.
Professional Development
Pedagogy Workshop on the New Common Core Seminar in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition.
Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. December 2014.
Participated in this workshop with the President, Deans, and faculty from across departments
and colleges. Prepared to pilot new CIT Seminars in the 2015-2016 academic year.
Faculty Technology Summer Institute. Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. June
2014.
Selected by College to participate and attend this intensive three-day workshop on
incorporating and implementing digital and technological tools into the classroom.
Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Summer Institute. University of
Wisconsin Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. June 2013.
Selected by Provost to attend an intensive three-day institute on High Impact Practices,
Learning Outcomes, and Assessment.
Davis Grant Workshop for the Freshman Seminar. Sacred Heart University in Fairfield,
Connecticut. June 2013, June 2014.
Participated with faculty across the disciplines in two three-day workshops on pedagogical
development for professors of the Freshman Seminar.
Workshop and Training for the Art of Thinking Course. Sacred Heart University in Fairfield,
CT. January 2012.
Took part in an intensive three-day workshop on the Foundational Core course in logic, the
Art of Thinking. Collaborated with colleagues across the disciplines through this training.
Presidential Seminar Faculty Development. Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Spring 2011-Fall 2012.
Participated in a cross-disciplinary, inter-college seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition
that culminated in the presentation of a final project.
Collegium. College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. June 2011.

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Selected by University to attend a week-long series of seminars, discussions, and panels
focused on working within a Catholic academic institution of higher education.
Professional Service
Field:
Officer-At-Large, the International Theodore Dreiser Society. 2008-Present.
Serve the field of Dreiser studies by creating events, pioneering plans, and instituting ideas to
promote the growth of this worldwide organization.
University:
University Academic Assembly Council Member. Fall 2014-Present.
Serve the University by representing my College at monthly meetings, voting on significant
proposals, and discussing potential new policies.
Judge, Northeastern Ethics Bowl. Sacred Heart University. December 2013, December 2014.
Judged several rounds of this regional debate competition, in which debate teams representing
colleges and universities across the East Coast compete to qualify for the Nationals.
Committee Member, Presidential Athletic Association Committee. Spring 2012-Spring 2014.
Served with faculty and staff across the colleges on various projects, such as the creation of a
new mentoring program for student athletes.
Faculty Advisor, Women’s Tennis Team. Fall 2015-Present.
Mentor members of the team by working closely with the Coach to support these young
women both on the court and in the classroom.
College:
College Committee and Faculty Working Group on the Liberal Arts. Present.
Participated in a summer working group with faculty from across the College of Arts and
Sciences. Collaborated with colleagues to research material and compose a report on
defending liberal arts education.
Organizer, Distinguished Talk by Andrew Delbanco. October 2013.

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Organized a special lecture and colloquium by Andrew Delbanco, Director of American
Studies at Columbia University and Columbia’s Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the
Humanities. Most recently, he is the author of New York Times critically acclaimed book,
College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be.
Academic Advisor, Sacred Heart University Freshman Advising. 2011-Present.
Have advised over one hundred freshmen and sophomores individually to plan their course
selections, and to help them select majors and minors.
Department:
Faculty Advisor, Sacred Heart University English Club. Present.
Working with student leaders and members to coordinate and support creative and intellectual
events related to the study and practice of English Literature.
Literature Capstone Committee, Sacred Heart University English Department. 2010-11.
Worked with other faculty members in the English department to design an advanced seminar
or independent study requirement for all majors.
Language
Spanish (fluent)
Lived and studied abroad at the University of Salamanca (August 1999-December 2000).
Additional Achievements & Interests
National Adult Gold Ladies Figure Skating Champion (appeared on April 2, 2006 as a front page
news article on the United States Figure Skating Association website) (http://www.usfsa.com).
March 2006.
References
Leonard Cassuto, Professor of English, Fordham University
Cassuto@fordham.edu
Jeff Cain, Chair of English, Sacred Heart University

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Cainj@sacredheart.edu
Clare Eby, Professor of English, University of Connecticut
Clareeby@earthlink.net
Jonathan Levin, Provost, Mary Washington University
Jlevin@drew.edu
Rick Magee, Associate Professor of English, Sacred Heart University
MageeR@sacredheart.edu